Arnór Dan - 'Stone By Stone'
Award-winning Icelandic singer and composer Arnór Dan’s debut single, ‘Stone By Stone’ may have come out two years ago, but takes on a new resonance in the current COVID-19 crisis.
Arnór Dan’s bleak debut single ‘Stone By Stone’ is driven by fluttering and pulsating percussive elements, that fleshes out with soaring cinematic strings, seeing the track take on an ambient and expansive yet industrial feel to accompany Arnór Dan’s aching, ethereal vocal . At times it feels like mankind is the master of its own destruction, becoming more divided the easier it has become to be physically and virtually connected. Co-written with Janus Rasmussen (Kiasmos) and Sakaris Emil Joensen, ‘Stone by Stone’ translates the above concern too well, which is fully realised in the haunting chorus, “We’ve built these walls between us we're combing the skylines with all our wrongs”.
Call coronavirus whatever you want, our penance, an accident, god’s will, something entirely different; one thing is clear - apathy and detachment is rich in the air. In the UK, Politicians have been following a science which has taught us to count out our favourite people to socialise in groups of six with, or to close our doors to our friends and relatives all together. Not least of all, to remember to stand 1+ metres from people we pass in the streets or in the supermarket; a domino effect that has shattered the way we function not only as a society but as a planet.
’Stone By Stone’ is accompanied by a stunning video representing “two mysterious figures isolated from each other within the infinite, sweeping vistas of Iceland's volcanic landscape. The tranquil imagery accentuates the simultaneous detachment and longing they feel toward each other, with the focus shifting from the minutiae of their present moment under a magnifying glass to a broader picture of the beautiful, natural world that surrounds their affairs.”
Serving as a profound reminder of the human need for intimacy and connection, ‘Stone By Stone’ now means more to me than it did when I first heard it in 2018. While desolate and despairing, it’s also beautiful and enriching. Hope lies in the lyrics, “with the warmth of the sun there is something left to love. Left to love with the warmth of the sun”. We are all only a heartbeat away from change. From letting the light in, whichever way it finds us.
Words of Karla Harris